1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device for use in facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to a sheet feeding device capable of automatically selecting a sheet size in accordance with a received message, wherein the sheet feeding device includes a sheet supplier and a sheet discharging means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To clearly explain the background of the invention, reference will be made to FIG. 2 in which facsimile apparatus in common use is shown:
Facsimile apparatus are provided with one or two cassettes in which recording sheets are stacked. The illustrated example is a two-stage type which has one cassette above another. Received messages are recorded on the sheet fed from the cassette, and the sheets bearing the message are discharged by means of a discharging means. The apparatus requires another discharging means which discharges an original from which a message is transmitted.
In FIG. 2 a facsimile apparatus is provided with cassettes 2, 3 and discharging trays 2a, 3a. The double-cassette apparatus can handle sheets of five or six sizes, such as A4, B4, B5, letter size, legal size, which are stacked in the two cassettes. For use, a required size is automatically selected from the two cassettes. In FIG. 2 the facsimile apparatus includes a transmitter 4, a receiver 5 and a developing section 6 in which the received message is developed.
The known facsimile apparatus has the following disadvantages:
When a long message is received, the single-cassette type of facsimile must record it on two pages. As a result, the received message is divided into two pages. This consumes sheets and the reader must turn pages. This is troublesome. If the cassette contains sheets of no corresponding size to a received message size such as A4 v. B4 size, the received message (B4 size) will be automatically contracted to the A4 size.
With the double-cassette the same difficulty as pointed out above arises. Additional disadvantage is that the size of the facsimile apparatus as a whole is increased because of the provision of double cassettes. Likewise, the provision of double discharging trays enlarges the size of the apparatus, which reflects in the production cost, and requires a larger installation site.